This disclosure relates generally to providing a means of generating a social network message from a mobile device.
Online social network platforms allow users to locate, establish social network relationships with, and communicate with other social network users. Using a social network identity (e.g., an identity associated with a social network account), a user can share information with family, friends, and other acquaintances with whom the user has established a social network relationship. Likewise, the user can receive information from social network users with whom the user has established a social network relationship. Based on the ability to share information with a group of people who would likely be most interested in such information, social networking platforms have become an extremely popular way for people to communicate and stay in touch.
As the functionality of mobile devices has increased, these devices have become a natural means of communicating using social network platforms. Mobile devices are often in the possession of a user, often include a digital camera for capturing still or video images, are often aware of their location (e.g., through GPS location information), and often have Internet connectivity. Based on these factors, mobile devices provide an efficient mechanism to communicate messages and digital media via a social network platform while a user is on the go.
There are, however, certain drawbacks to social network communications using mobile devices. For example, communicating via a social network account from a mobile device requires that a client-side social network application be installed on the device. Typically, a client-side social network application for a social network platform provides most, if not all, of the functionality available through a web interface of the social network platform. Therefore, in addition to allowing a user to create social network messages, a client-side social network application will also generally allow a user to view messages communicated by their social network friends, create and respond to friend requests, etc.
If a mobile device user simply wants to create a social network message, launching a client-side social network application and browsing through the application to utilize the desired functionality may be cumbersome. Moreover, a mobile device user may have social network accounts through multiple social network platforms. If the user wants to communicate a similar message using each of their social network accounts, the user would have to launch a client-side application for each of the social network platforms and compose a separate message from within each client-side application. This process may be more time consuming than the user is willing to accept.